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THE 


USES  OF  THE  CAMEL 


CONSIDERED   WITH   A   VIEW   TO   HIS   INTRODUCTION   INTO 
OUR   WESTERN  STATES   AND   TERRITORIES. 


A  PAPER 


UKAD  BEFOUE  THE  AMERICAN  UEOfiUAPIIICAL  ANH  STATISTICAL 
SOCIETY,  MARCH  2d,  1SC5. 


BY 


JOSEPH  WAREEiST  FABENS, 

N0N-RK9IDENT   MEMBKR   OP  THE   SOCIETY. 


NEW  YORK: 

Carle  ton.  Publisher,  413  Broadway. 

WASHINGTON,    D.  C.  :    FRA.NCK   TAYLOR. 
1865. 


THE 


USES  OF  THE  CAMEL : 


CONSIDERED   WITH   A   VIEW   TO   HIS   INTRODUCTION  INTO 
OUR   WESTERN  STATES   AND   TERRITORIES. 


A  PAPER 


READ  BEFORE  THE  AMERICAN  GEOGRAPHICAL  AND  STATISTICAL 
SOCIETY,  MARCH  2d,  1S65. 


BY 

JOSEPH  WARREN  FABENS, 

NON-RESIDKST   MEMBER   OF  THB  SOCIETY. 


NEW  YORK: 

Carlcton^  Publisher^  413  Broadivay. 

WASHlNaTON,    D.  C.  :    FRANCE  TAYLOR. 
1865. 


I 


THE    USES   OF   THE  CAMEL. 


INTRODUCTORY    REMARKS. 

The  cession  of  California  to  the  United  States  by  the  treaty 
of  Guadalupe  Hidalgo,  in  1848,  was  an  event  fraught  with  the 
most  important  consequences  to  our  country.  It  was  one  of 
those  events  which  mark  eras  in  a  nation's  history.  It  gave  to 
us  an  uninterrupted  stretch  from  ocean  to  ocean  across  the 
finest  parallels  of  the  earth's  surface.  It  opened  to  the  imagin- 
ation a  new  highway  to  the  Indies,  and  foreshadowed  the  idea 
of  a  continental  domain  where  the  world's  last  great  empire 
should  sit  enthroned.  Yet  its  first  promise,  though  grand,  was 
somewhat  remote  and  obscure  until  illumined  by  the  halo  of 
that  wonderful  discovery  of  gold  which  followed  immediately 
upon  our  occupation  of  its  territory. 

The  effect  of  this  discovery  was  not  merely  to  infuse  new 
vigor,  and  a  broader,  hardier  development  into  the  American 
character,  and  give  a  swift  impetus  to  our  national  growth;  but 
it  made  our  country,  as  it  were,  a  centre  to  which  was  attracted 
the  migratory  population  of  other  lands.  Circumstances 
favored  this  end.  An  appalling  famine  was  scourging  Ireland. 
Europe  was  rocking  under  political  convulsions,  and  a  great 
tide  of  immigration,  following  the  traditional  path  of  empire, 
was  surging  upon  our  Atlantic  shores.  The  volume  was  easily 
broken,  for  a  long-continued  influx  of  immigrants  had  at  length 
raised  up  a  barrier  against  themselves,  and  a  portion  was  swept 
round  to  the  Pacific.  There,  on  those  golden  shores,  where  toil 
and  recompense  went  hand  in  hand,  representatives  of  every 
country  in  Europe  worked  side  b}''  side  with  American  citizens, 
native  Indians,  Peruvians,  Chilians,  and  the  half-breeds  of  Mex- 
ico and  Central  America.     "  The  Australian  joined  them  from 


THE    USES    OF   THE    CAMEL. 


his  continent  in  the  South ;  the  Mahiy  and  Polynesian  from  the 
isles  of  the  Pacific  ;  while  the  Chinaman  came  forth  like  an 
anchorite  from  his  cell,  built  a  temple  for  his  idols  in  San  Fran- 
cisco, and  joined  in  a  concourse  of  human  tribes  such  as  the 
world  never  before  beheld."     The  mtri  sacra  fames  was  a  fever 
in    men's  blood— Cape  Horn  and  Magellan  were  familiar  as 
household  words.     The  narrow  belt  of  the  Isthmus  of  Panama 
was  thronged  with  an  eager,  straining  multitude.     Up  against 
the  swift  current  of  the  often  fatal  Chagres  river,  under  broiling 
suns  and  drenching  rains,  they  toiled.     Along  the  Gorgona  or 
Cruces  road,  through  mud,  such  as  no  army  of  the  Potomac 
ever  dreamed  of,  they  waded,  and  with  unblanched  cheeks  they 
faced  the  pestilence  that  stalketh  at  noonday.     But  that  road, 
which  is  to  be   the   highway  of  nations,  and  which  will  be 
worthy  of  its  name — that  path,  where  the  traveller  from  the 
farthest  East,  and  the  traveller  from  the  farthest  West,  shall 
meet  and  clasp  hands;  across  the  American  plains,  over  the 
Kocky  Mountains,  along  the  great  central  plateau,  through  the 
gorges   of  the  Sierra  Nevada  down  into  California — was  un- 
travelled,  because  unexplored — unknown.     Here  and  there  a 
hunter  or  a  trapper, — a  few  adventurous  spirits,  journeying,  like 
Abraham  and  Lot,  westward  with  their  flocks  and  herds, — these, 
and  the  Indians  whom  we  hunted  to  their  inevitable  doom,  and 
flying  Mormons  whom  w^e  hounded  till  they  stood  at  bay,  and 
prospered  in  the  wilderness  and  made  the  desert  as  the  rose, 
were  all  the  sojourners  in  that  magnificent  land. 

Years  rolled  away — ten  short,  busy  years— and  in  the  sumi- 
mer  of  1858,  Greene  Russell  and  a  party  of  adventurers,  follow- 
ing up  the  Arkansas  River,  came  to  the  country  about  Pike's 
Peak,  and  there  found  gold.  Here  was  another  point  of  attrac- 
tion, and  the  overland  travel  to  Colorado  began.  Afterwards, 
but  at  a  long  interval,  came  the  silver  discoveries  of  Arizona 
and  Nevada ;  then  the  mineral  discoveries  of  Idaho,  Montana, 
Utah,  and  New  Mexico,  flashing  suddenly  and  brightly  from  hill- 
side to  hill-side,  like  the  fires  which  bore  tidings  of  Grecian 
victory  in  old  Homer's  song— rather  like  the  breaking  of  a  new 
day  on  the  mountain-tops,  coming  from  the  west,  and  reversing 
the  order  of  the  sun,  and  shedding  over  hill  and  valley  and 
rolling  plain,  "  the  light  that  never  was  on  land  or  sea." 

The  line  of  travel  has  set  in  along  this  route,  and  needs  only 


I 


INTRODUCTORY   REMARKS.  O 

increased  facilities  to  be  increased  a  Imndred  told.  For  these 
lands  that  now,  for  the  first  time,  have  bared  their  lustrous 
bosoms  to  the  day,  invite  the  settler  with  a  health-giving  climate, 
a  fertile  soil,  wood  and  water,  and  resources  of  pastoral  agricul- 
ture unrivalled  on  the  globe.  The  Rocky  Mountains,  no  longer 
regarded  as  a  barrier  to  separate  the  east  from  the  west,  are 
recognized  as  the  strong  backbone,  permeated  with  veins  of 
material  power  to  hold  the  country  together.  A  recent  writer, 
whom  I  infer  to  be  ex-Governor  Gil})in  of  Colorado,  whose  elo- 
quent description  of  the  parks  of  that  territory  we  had  the 
pleasure  of  listening  to  in  these  halls  last  season,  says  :  "  The 
amount  of  transportation  between  the  Missouri  River  and  Col- 
orado, as  the  first  point  of  entrance  to  the  great  mountain  sys- 
tem, is  prodigious.  The  great  plains  represent  the  ocean 
between  the  city  of  ISTew  York  and  Liverpool.  It  is  no  uncom- 
mon thing  to  see  as  many  as  five  thousand  wagon-teams  in  one 
camp,  and  it  is  not  setting  the  figure  too  high  to  say  that  at 
least  half  a  million  of  people  are  more  or  less  interested  or  en- 
gaged in  this  vast  system  of  intra-continental  transportation." 

A  daily  line  of  stages  is  running,  with  tolerable  regularity, 
from  Atchison  to  Placerville,  California.  The  Mormons  have 
their  trains ;  and  thousands  of  adventurers,  apart  from  the  above- 
described  travel  to  Colorado,  with  their  own  private  convey- 
ances, are  pressing  annually  to  the  farthest  west.  Yet  this 
method  of  communication  with  our  territories  is  slow  and 
difficult,  and  runs  but  over  a  narrow  ribbon  or  two  of  soil. 
The  large  portion  of  our  western  domain  is  yet  untrodden  by 
the  foot  of  civilization,  inviting  the  explorer  with  its  promise  of 
fresh  fields  and  pastures  new. 

The  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  in  his  last  annual  report  to 
Congress,  says  :  "  During  the  past  year  additional  discoveries  of 
precious  metals,  particularly  of  silver,  have  been  made  in  the 
resrion  flankino;  on  the  eastward  the  extended  mountain  ranges 
of  the  Sierra  Nevada.  Avast  belt  of  some  one  or  two  hundred 
miles  in  width,  and  eight  or  nine  hundred  miles  in  length,  em- 
bracing portions  of  Idaho,  Nevada,  and  Arizona,  is  rich  in 
silver  ore.  Owing  to  the  remote  locality  of  these  mines,  and 
the  difliculty  of  transportation  thereto,  but  little  machinery 
well  adapted  to  the  rapid  and  economical  reduction  of  the 
various  ores  has  been  introduced.     In  that  portion  of  Nevada 


b  THE    USES    OF   THE    CAMEL, 

through  which  the  Pacific  Railroad  will  pass,  many  rich  veins 
have  been  found,  and  it  is  estimated,  by  persons  familiar  with 
the  subject,  that  if  the  mines  now  opened  there  were  supplied 
with  the  proper  machinery,  they  would  yield  ten  millions  of 
dollars  per  month.  When  we  reflect  that  the  region  of  country 
in  which  deposits  of  the  precious  metals  abound,  includes  large 
portions  of  three  States  and  six  Territories,  and  that  the  richest 
veins  of  ore  heretofore  discovered  are  as  yet  but  slightly  de- 
veloped, while  new  discoveries  are  constantly  being  made,  it 
will  be  perceived  that  tlie  annual  product  of  the  mines  in  tlie 
United  States  must  soon  reach  a  magnitude  without  precedent 
in  the  history  of  mining  operations." 

And  asrain  : — "  The  mines  of  New  Mexico  and  Arizona  are 

CD 

probably  not  inferior  in  richness  to  any  within  the  limits  of  the 
United  States.  Owing  to  their  inaccessibility  they  are  indiffer- 
ently wrought ;  all  efforts  to  make  them  available  must  neces- 
sarily be  feeble,  and  attended  with  but  partial  success,  until 
roads  shall  have  been  constructed  through  those  Territories  from 
the  Atlantic  States,  or  from  the  navigable  waters  of  the  Pacific. 
The  benefits  resulting  from  such  roads  would  not  be  confined 
to  the  product  of  the  mines.  A  new  highway,  at  all  times  ex- 
empt from  obstruction  by  snow,  Avould  be  open  to  the  Pacific. 
Passing  by  the  valley  of  the  Rio  Grande  to  El  Paso,  it  would 
i-eceive  a  large  portion  of  the  rich  commerce  of  Central  and 
"Western  Mexico." 

Here  is  food  for  consideration.  The  country  teeming  with 
■  precious  metals,  and  gold  at  one  hundred  per  cent,  premium  in 
its  great  commercial  mart!  Kow,  it  must  be  evident  to  all, 
that  one  of  the  principal  means  to  be  used  for  restoring  the 
national  credit,  and  thereby  putting  the  crowning  cap-stone  to 
the  nation's  triumph  over  its  enemies  everywhere,  is  to  facili- 
tate emigratiun  and  cheaper  transportation  to  the  mining  re- 
gions. And  as  an  adjunct  in  this  movement,  I  respectfully  pro- 
pose the  Camel.  I  do  most  earnestly  believe,  and  it  is  a  convic- 
tion forced  upon  me  after  long  study  and  observation  of  the  sub- 
ject, tliat  the  introduction  of  the  camel  into  our  western  States 
and  Territories,  on  a  scale  of  sufticient  magnitude,  will  furnish  a 
cheaper,  speedier,  safer,  more  regular  and  reliable  inode  of 
travel  and  transjiortation  than  any  which  now  exists,  or  will  be 
substituted  until  the  iron  horse  snorts  defiance  to  all  com- 
petitors. 


domesticity  and  docility.  7 

Domesticity  and  Docility, 

The  camel  is  presented  to  us  from  the  beuMiuiiiig  as  the 
friend  and  servant  of  man.  He  fitj;ures  in  the  first  catalogue  of 
domestic  animals  of  which  we  have  any  record,  and  appears  in 
this  domestic  state  to  have  been  a  birthday  gift  to  man  from 
his  Creator,  In  those  primitive  days,  wlien  the  earth  was  fresh 
from  the  hands  of  its  Maker,  and  tlie  uses  of  the  several  king- 
doms, which  God  gave  man  for  his  inheritance,  were  best 
understood,  we  find  the  camel  to  have  been  tlie  most  regarded 
of  all  the  animal  creation;  the  compaiiion  of  his  master  in  his 
farthest  Avanderings,  as  well  as  the  denizen  of  his  household  and 
the  playmate  of  his  children.  When  a  wife  Avas  sought  for  Isaac, 
the  old  servant  of  Abraliam  fixed  upon  a  regard  for  camels  as 
an  appropriate  mark  by  wliicli  he  would  not  fail  to  recognize 
the  maiden  whom  the  Lord  had  destined  for  the  favorite  child 
of  his  master.  And  how  beautifully  did  the  gentle  Rebecca 
answer  to  the  test :  "  And  when  she  had  done  giving  him  drink, 
she  said,  I  will  draw  water  for  thy  cauicls  also,  until  they  have 
done  drinking. 

"And  she  hasted  and  emptied  her  pitcher  into  the  trough, 
and  ran  again  unto  the  well  to  draw  water,  and  drew  for  all 
his  camels." 

When  Jacob  was  returning  home,  and  wished  to  meet  his 
brother  Esau  upon  friendly  terms,  he  sent  him,  among  other 
presents,  thirty  milch  camels  with  their  colts.  Then,  as  now, 
on  the  long  inland  eastern  routes  the  camel  was  the  family  con- 
veyance ;  Jacob  in  his  travels,  we  are  told,  set  his  sons  and 
wives  upon  camels,  probably  several  upon  the  same  animal. 
It  is  certainly  no  uncommon  sight,  at  the  present  day,  to  see 
half  a  dozen  women  and  children  huddled  cozily  a  camel-back, 
going  to  make  a  neighborly  call  on  some  cousins,  perchance  two 
or  three  hundred  miles  distant.  The  appreciation  of  the  camel 
to  kindness,  in  word  or  tone  or  touch,  has,  doubtless,  much  to 
do  in  rendering  him  the  favorite  animal  of  the  household,  and, 
indeed,  causing  him  to  be  looked  upon  as  an  inseparable  por- 
tion thereof.  The  marabouts  in  Africa,  when  they  enter  a 
house,  invoke  a  blessing  on  the  chief  and  on  his  wives,  his  chil- 
dren and  his  camels ;  and  when  they  are  sent  to  negotiate  a 
peace  with   a  belligerent  tribe,  they  preface  their  diplomatic 


8  THE  USES   OF   THE   CAMEL. 

conference  by  a  warning  note,  that  as  tliey,  the  belligerents, 
treat  the  terms  proposed,  so  shall  they  and  their  camels  be  dealt 
with.  The  author  of  "  An  Excursion  in  Asia  Minor"  says : 
"  The  care  of  the  camels  seems  to  be  very  much  left  to  the 
children.  1  have  just  watched  a  string  stopping  on  an  open 
plain.  A  child  twitched  the  cord  suspended  from  the  head  of 
the  first — a  loud  gurgling  growl  indicated  the  pleasure  of  the 
camel  as  it  awkwardly  knelt  down,  and  the  child,  who  could 
just  reach  its  back,  unlinked  the  hooks  which  suspended  from 
either  side  the  bales  of  cotton  ;  another  child  came  with  a  bowl 
of  water  and  a  sponge,  and  was  welcomed  with  a  louder  roar  of 
pleasure  as  it  washed  the  mouth  and  nostrils  of  the  animal; 
this  grateful  office  ended,  the  liberated  camel  wandered  off  to 
the  thicket  to  browse  during  the  day — and  this  was  done  to  each 
of  the  forty-five,  which,  all  unbidden,  had  knelt  down  precisely 
as  the  one  I  have  described,  forming  a  circle,  which  continued 
marked  during  the  day  by  the  bales  of  goods  lying  at  regular 
distances.  On  a  given  signal  in  the  afternoon,  at  about  three 
o'clock,  every  camel  resumed  its  own  place  and  knelt  down  be- 
tween its  bales,  which  were  again  attached,  and  the  caravan 
proceeded  on  its  tardy  course. 

"  I  am  not  surprised  at  finding  the  strong  attachment  of  these 
animals  to  the  children,  for  I  have  often  seen  three  or  four  of 
them,  when  young,  lying  with  their  heads  inside  a  tent,  in  the 
midst  of  the  sleeping  children,  while  their  long  bodies  remained 
outside." 

"  Oh,  tribes  of  Sahara,"  saj^s  an  Arab  song,  "  jon  boast  of 
your  camels,  but  know  you,  that  they  who  would  possess  camels, 
must  know  how  to  defend  them." 

The  peculiar  gentleness,  the  docility  of  the  camel ;  his  plain- 
tive voice ;  his  coaxing  looks  and  gestures ;  his  "  soft,  woman- 
ish ways,"  as  Kinglake  styles'them  ;  the  fidelity  with  which  he 
clings  to  man,  and  the  need  which  he  seems  to  feel  of  his  pro- 
tection, excite  those  sentiments  of  pity  which  are  akin  to  love, 
even  as  his  sturdier  and  more  heroic  characteristics  challenge 
our  admiration. 

The  general  kindness  with  which  camels  are  treated  in  the 
East,  is  of  course  not  without  many  lamentable  exceptions. 
Woe  to  the  unfortunate  camel  who  falls  sick  on  the  road.  The 
hot  iron  or  some  fiery  internal  application  is  freely  and  merci- 


GEOGRAPHICAL    RANGE.  9 

lesslj  applied,  until  the  animal  staggers  on  in  sheer  desperation, 
or  succumbs  sullenly  to  his  fate,     I  have  seen  Arabs  belaboring 
their  beasts  most  cruelly  because  they  hesitated  to  rise  under 
their  heavy  packs,  perchance  for  the  twentieth  time,  at  the  mere 
whim  of  their  drivers.     Admiral  Porter,  who  commanded  the 
"  Supply"  wlien  the  government  camels  were  brought  over  in 
that  ship,  says,  that  on  one  occasion,  when  a  camel  was  slow  to 
rise,  one  of  the  natives  in   charge  suggested  pouring  a  bucket 
full  of  scalding  hot  pitch  over  his  back.     Porter  drylj^  observes 
that  he  had  no  doubt  of  the  efficacy  of  the  application,  as  re- 
garded the  camel's  getting  up  quickly,  but  he  preferred  a  more 
merciful  method,  which  had  the  desired  effect.     Last  summer, 
having  some  camels  to  send  by  railroad  from  Marseilles  to 
Paris,  I  dispatched  them  from  the  ship  to  the  station  in  charge 
of  an  Arab,  with  instructions  not  to  embark  them  until  my 
arrival.     AVhen  I  got  there  I  found  one  of  the  animals  covered 
with  ropes,  and  six  Frenchmen  pulling  away  on   them   as  for 
dear  life,  to  drag  him  into  the  cars.     Of  course  the  camel  re- 
sisted, and  the  six  Frenchmen  were  getting  the  worst  of  it.     I 
ordered  the  ropes  cut  adrift,  told  the  Arab  to  bring  up  a  bag 
of  barley,  wherewith  in  a  persuasive  manner  he  was  to  precede 
the  animals  into  the  car.     The  camels  at  once  saw  the  point  of 
the  joke,  and  yielded  gracefully  to  the  suaviter  in  modo. 

Geographical  Range. 

Nothing  can  be  more  erroneous  than  the  opinion  which  com- 
monly prevails  with  regard  to  the  geographical  range  of  the 
camel.  Because  he  is  better  adapted  than  any  other  animal  to 
certain  local  conditions,  and,  indeed,  by  his  remarkable  powers 
of  abstinence  and  endurance,  has  bridged  over  vast  spaces  of 
the  earth's  surface,  not  otherwise  penetrable  by  man,  many 
have  inferred  that,  apart  from  these  influences  of  soil  and 
climate,  he  would  deteriorate  and  become  comparatively  use- 
less. General  literature  fosters  this  idea,  and  associates  the 
camel  exclusively  with  the  hot  sun,  the  shifting  sands,  and 
waving  palms  of  the  desert.  But  the  facts  of  the  case  destroy 
this  poetical  illusion.  The  principal  countries  where  the  camel 
has  been  in  extensive  use  for  centuries  lie  between  the  15th 
and  52d  degrees  of  north  latitude — the  large  portion  being  in 
the  north  temperate  zone.     Johnson,  in  his  Physical  Atlas, 


10  THE    USES    OF   THE    CAMEL. 

embraces  in  the  camel  countries  the  Canary  Islands,  Morocco, 
Algiers,  Tunis,  Tripoli,  the  Great  Desert  back  of  those  coun- 
tries, and  Egypt  on  the  continent  of  Africa,  Arabia,  Asiatic 
Turkey,  Persia,  Cabool,  Beloochistan,  Ilindoostan,  Birmah, 
Thibet,  Mongolia,  a  portion  of  Siberia,  and  Tartary  in  Asia,  the 
Crimea,  and  European  Turkey. 

It  will  be  seen  that  we  have  within  these  limits  seasons  of 
the  most  intense  cold  as  well  as  tropical  heat. 

In  conversing  with  a  venerable  Arab,  in  Algiers,  on  the 
subject  of  introducing  camels  into  the  United  States,  I  suggested 
the  ]5i-opriety  of  purchasing  the  mountain  breed,  which  are 
used  chiefly  between  the  northern  limit  of  the  Great  Desert  and 
the  Mediterranean,  where  the  climate  does  not  vary  much  from 
that  of  our  "Western  country.  "  By  no  means,"  said  he ;  "  take 
the  desert  camels.  The  animals  that  can  stand  extreme  heat 
can  support  equally  well  extreme  cold." 

Erman  writes,  under  date  of  February  20th,  and  with  a 
temperature  of  twenty-five  degrees  of  Fahrenheit  below  zero  : — 
"■  On  the  Chinese  side  (at  Kiachta)  we  saw  seventy  fine  camels 
turned  loose,  and  feeding  on  the  frozen  and  withered  grass. 
They  fear  the  severe  winters  of  this  climate  as  little  as  the 
parching  heat  in  the  sand-steppes ;"  and  Marsh,  our  former 
minister  to  Constantinople,  now  Minister  at  Turin,  adds  to  the 
foregoing: — ■ 

"  So  numerous  is  the  camel  in  these  frozen  realms,  that 
almost  the  whole  commerce  between  Russia  and  China,  by  way 
of  Kiachta,  is  carried  on  by  means  of  them,  and  they  transport 
merchandise  over  the  vast  distance  between  Orenburg  on  the 
Ural,  and  Pretropawlowsk  on  the  peninsula  of  Kamschatka. 
In  the  month  of  October,  Timkorski  met  on  the  desert  of  Gobi, 
in  latitude  46°  north,  and  at  the  heie'ht  of  two  thousand  five 
hundred  feet  above  the  sea,  a  herd  of  twenty  thousand  camels. 
The  Russian  expedition  against  Khiva  and  Bokhara,  in  1810, 
employed  more  than  an  equal  number,  and  Berghaus  estimates 
the  number  of  camels  in  European  Russia  at  not  less  than  one 
hundred  thousand. 

"Father  Hue's  lively  narrative  of  his  travels  in  Tartary  is 
full  of  similar  proofs  of  the  power  of  the  camel  to  brave  the  icy 
frosts  and  chilling  blasts  of  that  frigid  region,  and  we  may 
reasonably  conclude   that  he   is  able  to  endure    the  greatest 


FRUGALITY    AND   POWER   OF   ABSTINENCE.  ll 

extremes  of  temperature  known  in  climates  habitaljle  by  civil- 
ized man." 

The  introducLion  of  the  camel  into  Tuscany  lias  been  a 
marked  success.  They  have  multiplied  from  a  few  tliat  were 
brought  from  Upper  Egypt,  and  now  number  several  hundred. 
They  are  used  on  the  farm  of  the  Grand  Duke  at  Pisa,  where 
they  do  excellent  service,  re<piiring  no  food  beyond  what  they 
can  gather  for  themselves  by  browsing  among  the  pine  barrens, 
and  are  not  housed  during  winter  in  the  latitude  of  43°  30' 
north,  where  the  climate  is  more  trying  than  in  our  North- 
western Territories. 

The  results  of  the  experiments  made  with  the  camels  in  the 
Zoological  Gardens  in  London,  and  the  Jardin  des  Plante8 
and  Jardin  d' Acclimation,  in  Paris,  have  been  equally  grati- 
fying. The  camel-attendant  in  the  London  gardens  told  me 
that  the  water  frequently  froze  quite  solid  in  the  stables,  but 
the  animals  did  not  seem  to  suffer  at  all  from  the  cold.  He 
considered  them,  indeed,  less  liable  to  be  affected  by  change 
of  weather  than  the  rugged  coach-horse  of  England. 

Jamrock,  a  famous  dealer  in  animals  in  London,  had  six  fine 
camels  in  his  stables  last  fall,  which  he  told  me  he  could  not 
find  a  market  for  in  England.  He  said  he  had  already  sup- 
plied the  men  of  taste  who  fancied  good  animals ;  that  the 
menageries  were  full ;  and  added  that  they  would  probably 
remain  so  ;  that  camels  were  very  hardy  animals ;  never  died, 
etc.     He  seemed  quite  gloomy  about  it. 

Frugality  and  Power  of  Abstinence. 

The  characteristic  which  pre-eminently  distinguishes  the 
camel  from  other  animals  of  draught  or  burden  is  his  frugality 
and  extraordinary  power  of  abstinence.  He  takes  kindly  to  the 
coarsest  grasses  and  shrubs,  munching  dry  leaves,  branches  of 
pine  or  cedar,  thistles,  and  other  prickly  plants,  with  apparent 
relish.  It  is  not  the  custom  of  the  Eastern  tribes  to  feed  their 
camels.  They  subsist,  for  the  most  part,  on  what  they  pick  up 
on  their  travels,  and  when  turned  out  to  browse  at  night. 
When  herbage  and  browse  are  not  to  be  had  at  all,  or  as  an 
encouragement  at  the  bes-innino;,  or  solace  at  the  end  of  a 
journey,  a  few  pounds  of  barley,  or  a  few  handfuls  of  beans  or 
dates  are  sometimes  given  ;  but  this  is  a  rare  ebullition  of  gen- 


12  THE    USES    OF   THE    CAMEL. 

erosity,  which  probably  astonishes  the  Arab  who  indulges  in  it 
quite  as  much  as  the  animal  who  is  the  amazed  recipient. 
"When  stal)led  in  cities  they  are  fed  on  hay  and  chopped  straw, 
and  consume  about  half  tl)e  average  allowance  for  a  horse. 
The  fat  of  the  camel,  when  he  has  any,  goes  to  the  hump. 
This  is  his  storehouse  of  nutriment,  which  he  there  secretes 
when  it  is  abundant,  and  reabsorbs  when  it  is  not  found  else- 
where sutiicient  for  his  wants.  The  first  point  that  an  Arab 
jockey  regards,  in  bargaining  for  a  camel,  is  the  external  ap- 
pearance of  the  hump.  As  that  is  full  or  shrivelled,  so  does  he 
estimate  the  condition  of  the  animal.  After  long  and  tedious 
journeys,  the  hump  is  often  seen  flattened  to  near  the  level  of 
the  back. 

Major  Wayne,  of  the  United  States  Army,  in  a  report  upon 
camels,  to  the  Secretary  of  War,  dated  on  board  the  "•  Supply," 
April  10th,  1856,  says :  "  Beyond  this  supplying  with  food  by 
reabsorption,  the  hump  does  not  seem  to  be  intimately  connected 
with  the  animal's  vitality  ;  for  Linant  Bey  informed  me  that  he 
had  repeatedly  opened,  with  a  sharp  knife,  the  humps  of  his 
dromedaries,  when  from  high  feeding  they  had  become  so 
plump  as  to  prevent  the  fitting  of  the  saddle,  and  removed 
large  portions  of  the  fat,  without  in  any  manner  injuring  or 
affecting  the  2:eneral  health  of  the  animal." 

Not  only  is  the  hump  a  store-house  of  solid  nutriment,  on 
which  the  camel  may  draw  ad  libitum  as  long  as  it  lasts,  but 
he  is  provided  with  water-tanks  in  his  stomach,  where  he  can 
stow  away  his  water  for  a  cruise,  like  an  outward-bound  galliot 
before  the  time  of  patent  condensers.  He  has  not  only  four 
stomachs,  but  there  is  in  one  of  them  a  kind  of  reservoir,  formed 
of  cavities  or  cells,  capable  of  holding  several  gallons  of  water. 
And  he  is  also  fitted  up  with  pumps  like  a  ship,  and  can  pump 
the  water  up  out  of  his  tanks  into  his  mouth,  to  moisten  his 
often  dry  and  dusty  food.  Indeed,  Cuvier  supposes,  and  more 
recent  naturalists  have  accepted  the  theory,  that  this  ancient 
and  honorable  animal,  who  browsed  about  the  grounds  of  the 
first  Pharaoh,  is  furnished  with  that  triumph  of  modern  im- 
provements known  as  a  patent  condenser.  His  conjecture  was, 
that  the  stonu\cli  of  the  camel  is  not  only  able  to  retain  for 
many  days  water  swallowed  by  the  animal,  but  that  it  possesses 
the  further  power  of  secreting  a  special  fluid  for  moistening  the 


FRUGALITY    AND   POWER   OF    ABSTINENCE.  13 

fauces  and  viscera,  and  minglinif;  with  the  food  in  rumination,  in 
some  such  way  as  certain  iish  are  able  to  keep  the  skin  moist 
for  some  time  after  they  are  taken  from  the  water,  by  the 
exudation  of  a  fluid  secreted  for  that  purpose.  It  is  even  said 
that  tiie  fluid  found  in  the  water-sac  after  the  deatli  of  the 
camel  possesses  chemical  properties  which  prove  it  to  he  an 
animal  secretion.  The  Arabs  affirm  this  to  be  the  case,  and  the 
French  in  Algiers  seem  inclined  to  acquiesce  in  this  opinion. 

General  Carbuccia,  of  the  French  Army  in  Algiers,  states 
that  "  a  dromedary,  dying  by  accident,  was  afterwards  opened 
in  the  presence  of  several  French  officers.  The  reservoir  ])re- 
sented  the  appearance  and  consistency  of  a  melon,  and  contained 
more  than  fifteen  pints  of  a  greenish  water  of  no  had  flavor. 
The  Arabs  present  declared  that  if  it  were  allowed  to  settle  for 
three  days  it  would  become  clear  and  drinkable.  The  French 
tried  it,  and  the  Arabs  were  found  to  he  correct  in  their  state- 
ments." 

Now,  with  regard  to  the  time  that  camels  will  go  without 
drinking,  authorities  dift'er,  but  all  agree  that  his  power  of 
abstinence  in  this  respect  is  w^onderful.  A  French  report  of  the 
expedition  to  TAghouat  declares  that  the  camels  of  the  corps 
did  not  drink  from  February  to  May,  though  the  weather  was 
hot ;  and  General  Carbuccia,  the  commander  of  the  corps,  states 
that  the  Algerine  camel  never  drinks  during  the  last  two  months 
of  autumn  and  the  entire  winter  and  spring.  He  adds :  "  At  the 
beginning  of  summer  he  drinks,  and  then  abstains  fifteen  days  ; 
after  having  drunk  again,  he  goes  fourteen  days  without  water, 
then  thirteen,  then  twelve,  diminishing  gradually  his  periods  of 
abstinence  by  a  day,  until  he  reaches  the  seventh  day,  after 
which  he  drinks  once  a  week,  and  not  oftener,  whatever  may 
be  the  heat  or  the  fatigues  of  the  journey." 

Durham  and  Clapperton  mention  a  case  of  eight  days'  entire 
privation  of  water,  with  dry  food.  Burckhardt  records  an  in- 
stance of  like  abstinence  of  the  same  duration  in  the  month  of 
August,  and,  in  his  "  Notes  on  the  Bedouins,"  he  ascribes  to  the 
camels  of  Darfur  the  power  of  dispensing  with  water  for  nine  or 
ten  days,  even  when  on  the  inarch.  '*  The  Tibboos  and  other 
tribes,  who  constantly  traverse  the  Sahara,  are  very  confldentlv 
affirmed  to  possess  camels  which  can  support  a  privation  of 
fifteen  days  without  serious  inconvenience.     I  have  myself,"  he 


14:  THE    USES    OF   THE    CAMKL. 

continues,  "  witnessed  in  Arabia  Petrea  an  instance  of  complete 
privation  for  four  days,  in  very  hot  weatker  and  with  dry 
fodder."  Major  Skinner  declares  that  the  camels  of  his  caravan 
did  not  drink  between  Damascus  and  the  Euphrates  (from  the 
3d  to  23d  of  April),  though  water  was  offered  to  them  on  the 
tenth  day  of  his  journey.  Tavernier's  camels,  on  one  occasion, 
were  nine  days  without  water,  and  Russell  mentions  a  case  of 
abstinence  for  fifteen  davs.  A  neighbor  of  mine  in  Salem, 
Massachusetts,  Colonel  Miller,  formerly  collector  of  the  port, 
kept  a  camel  in  his  stables  for  a  winter,  which  passed  a  con- 
tinuous period  of  six  weeks  without  drinking.  The  camels 
that  I  brought  from  Africa  the  past  season  did  not  taste  water 
from  the  time  of  their  shipment  at  Algiers  until  they  were 
landed  from  the  railroad  cars  at  Havre.  I  led  them  to  a  trough 
at  the  station  of  the  Mediterranean  road  in  Paris,  but  they 
merely  snuffed  up  its  cool  fragrance  for  a  moment,  and  then,  at 
the  word  of  command,  stopped  gayly  off  across  the  boulevards. 
Neither  did  they  drink  at  all  during  their  voyage  across  the 
Atlantic  to  New  York,  embracing  a  period  of  twelve  days. 
"  Ships  of  the  land,"  in  sooth !  The  gallant  old  steamship 
"  New  York"  w' as  not  more  independent  of  the  Croton  and  the 
water-tanks  of  Southampton  than  were  my  stanch  clippers, 
'•Biskra"  and  "Luled." 

SHIPS    OF    THE   DESERT. 

There  be  some  hair-splitters  who  have  objected  to  this  time- 
honored  appellation  of  ''ships  of  the  desert,"  contending  that 
the  simile  would  not  be  likely  to  occur  to  the  Arabs,  who  are 
not  navigators,  and  averring  that  the  word  which  we  translate 
"ship"  means  simply  wagon  or  vehicle.  However  this  may  be, 
there  is  a  peculiar  fitness  in  the  simile  of  the  ship,  as  many  of 
us  who  have  experienced  feelings  similar  to  sea-sickness  on 
riding  for  the  first  time  a  caniel-back  might  perchance  unwil- 
lingly admit.  The  camel,  as  we  have  seen,  before  setting  out 
on  a  journey,  provisions  himself  for  a  voyage ;  and  even  as  a 
ship,  guided  by  human  intelligence,  finds  its  way  over  the 
watery  waste,  so  does  he,  with  unerring  instinct,  lay  his  course 
direct  from  oasis  to  oasis,  finding  a  path  where  all  is  pathless 
across  the  broad-lying  sands  of  the  desert.  To  see  a  caravan 
going  out  of  the  city  gates  laden  with  precious  freight,  the 


SPEED    AND   ENDURANCE.  15 

camels,  witli  heads  erect,  already  scenting  the  pure  air  of  the 
offing,  their  drivers*  gayly  singing,  or  shouting  ftirewell  to  the 
friends  they  leave  behind,  stirs  the  blood  like  the  sight  of  a 
gallant  ship,  its  deck  alive  with  cheery  mariners,  its  sails  belly- 
ing in  the  breeze,  as,  with  creaking  spars  and  straining  rigging, 
it  bows  its  head  before  the  freshening  blast,  spurning  the  slavish 
waters  of  the  shore,  and  leaping  to  the  freedom  of  the  sea. 
Again,  in  your  travels  on  some  bright,  sunshiny  morning,  you 
behold  them,  with  their  white  awnings  spread,  coming  up  above 
the  distant  horizon  of  the  plain,  swinging  and  rolling  across  the 
intervening  expanse,  and  bearing  majestically  down  upon  you, 
for  all  the  world  like  a  homeward-bound  Eastlndiaman  running 
before  the  wind  from  Good  Hope  down  to  St.  Helena.  Then, 
wlien  they  arrive  in  port,  and  their  cargoes  are  discharged,  no 
awkward  floundering  or  lying  on  their  side  to  rest,  as  other 
animals  do,  like  a  ship  stranded  or  hove  out  when  she  is  a  hulk 
and  not  a  ship,  but,  doubling  their  limbs  under  them,  they 
come  down  handsomely  fore  and  aft,  and  so  lie,  gallantly  swing- 
ing at  their  anchorage,  moored  stem  and  stern,  like  a  frigate  in 
the  Downs. 

Yet  it  must  not  be  supposed  that  it  is  all  plain  and  prosper- 
ous sailing  on  these  seas  of  sand.  Eastern  people  are  proverb- 
ially improvident,  and,  in  case  of  accident,  are  soon  on  sliort 
allowance.  Sometimes  springs  dry  up  in  the  desert,  and  cara- 
vans stray  in  search  of  others  till  they  are  lost.  Sometimes  all 
provision  fails.  Sometimes  the  fatal  simoom  strikes  them.  Then 
shipwrecks  occur  in  those  vast  solitudes,  as  was  the  case  with  a 
Syrian  caravan  of  three  thousand  camels  and  six  hundred  men 
which  perished  in  1858,  near  Hara  Iji  Sheham.  "  It  was  bound 
from  Damascus  to  Bagdad,  and  lost  the  way.  No  Bedouin 
happened  to  be  within  reach,  and  a  tribe  came  upon  their 
remains  long  after  their  death."  If  any  of  their  number  put 
off  on  fleet  beasts  in  search  of  aid,  as  boats  sometimes  do  from 
sinking  ships,  they,  too,  perished  by  the  way.  No  fated  bark 
ever  went  down,  amid  the  loneliness  of  ocean,  under  more 
helpless  circumstances,  or  amid  surroundings  more  awful  and 
sublime. 

SPEED   AND   ENDURANCE. 

The  camel  unites  in  himself  the  two  sterling  qualities  of 
speed  and  endurance.     It  is  incorrect  to  suppose  that  the  drom- 


16  THE    USES    OF   THE    CAMEL. 

edaiy  or  running  camel  is  of  a  different  species  from  the  ordi- 
nary burden  camel.  He  differs  only  in  b^ing  of  purer  blood, 
finer  organization,  and  superior  training;  as  the  race-horse  dif- 
fers from  the  dray-horse  in  our  streets.  The  ordinary  pace  of 
the  burden  camel  with  full  pack,  when  driven  regularly,  is  from 
three  to  five  miles  an  hour,  which  they  will  keep  up  for  twelve 
hours  on  a  stretch,  and  go  for  twenty  or  thirty  days  without 
showing  signs  of  fatigue.  Some  writers  afiirra  that  they  do 
better  than  this,  while  others  place  their  performances  at  a 
lower  rate.  It  would  not  be  fair,  however,  to  measure  the  ani- 
mal's capacity  by  what  he  actually  performs  in  the  East.  The 
Orientals  place  little  value  up(m  time,  and  have  a  disjointed, 
shuffling  habit  of  travelling,  allowing  their  beasts  to  browse 
along  the  road,  and  stopping  at  all  sorts  of  odd  times,  and  on 
the  most  trivial  pretences,  in  a  way  that  would  be  quite  irk- 
some to  our  go-ahead  race.  Nevertheless,  as  express-riders  or 
mail-carriers,  or  when  any  sudden  emergency  compels  them, 
they  scour  the  country  with  astonishing  rapidity,  and  perform 
feats  that  seem  almost  incredible. 

The  speed  of  the  dromedary  or  running  camel  is  established 
beyond  question.  The  Hebrew  word  for  dromedary  is  Mrka- 
routh,  which  means  "  a  swift  beast,"  and  is  so  translated  in 
Isaiah,  6Gth  chapter  and  20th  verse.  When  David  fell  upon 
the  Amalekites,  we  read  that  "  there  escaped  not  a  man  of 
themj  save  four  hundred  young  men,  which  rode  upon  camels 
and  fled." 

In  1811  Mahomet  Ali,  when  hastening  to  destroy  the  Mame- 
lukes, rode  the  same  camel  from  Suez  to  Cairo,  eighty-four 
miles,  in  a  single  night.  Marsh  states  that  a  French  officer  in 
the  service  of  the  Pacha  repeated  the  same  feat  in  thirteen 
hours,  and  that  two  gentlemen  of  liis  acquaintance  have  per- 
formed it  in  less  than  seventeen  without  a  change  of  camel. 
Laborde  made  the  journey  in  the  same  time,  and  went  from 
Alexandria  to  Cairo,  nearly  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles,  in 
tliirty-four  hours.  Colonel  Chesney  rode  with  four  dromeda- 
ries from  Baarah  to  Damascus,  nine  hundred  and  fifty-eight 
and  a  half  miles,  in  nineteen  days  and  a  \'ew  hours  (more  than 
fifty-four  miles  per  day),  the  animals  having  no  food  but  such 
as  they  picked  up  on  the  desert.  They  averaged  from  forty- 
four  to  forty-six  paces  per  minute,  with  a  length  of  step  of  six 


SPEED    AND    ENDUKANCE.  17 

feet  five  inches.  Mails  have  been  carried  from  Bagdad  to 
Damascus,  four  hundred  and  eighty-two  miles,  in  seven  days ; 
and,  on  one»occasion,  by  means  of  regular  relays  of  dromeda- 
ries, Mahomed  Ali  sent  an  express  to  Ibrahim  Pacha  from 
Cairo  to  Antioch,  five  hundred  and  sixty  miles,  in  five  days 
and  a  half.  Colonel  Chesney  says  the  swift  dromedary  can 
make  eight  or  nine  miles  per  hour,  and  accomplish  seventy 
miles  a  day  for  several  days  in  succession.  Buckhardt,  in  his 
"  Travels  in  Nubia,''  states  that  the  owner  of  a  fine  dromedary 
laid  a  wa^er  tliat  he  would  ride  the  animal  from  Esneh  to 
Keneh,  and  back,  a  distance  of  one  hundred  and  twenty -five 
miles,  between  sun  and  sun.  He  accomplished  one  hundred 
and  fifteen  miles,  occupying  twenty  minutes  in  crossing  and 
re-crossing  the  Nile  by  ferry,  in  eleven  hours,  and  then  gave 
up  the  wager.  Buckhardt  thinks  this  dromedary  would  have 
travelled  one  hundred  and  eighty  or  two  hundred  miles  in 
twenty-fours  without  injury.  The  interesting  paper  extracted 
from  the  notes  of  General  Harlan,  and  printed  in  the  United 
States  Patent  Office  Report  of  1853,  states  that  the  ordinary 
day's  jourriey  of  the  dromedary  of  Cabool  is  sixty  miles,  but 
that  picked  animals  will  travel  one  hundred  miles  a  day  for 
several  days  in  succession,  their  greatest  speed  being  about  ten 
miles  an  hour. 

A  French  writer  in  the  lievue  Orientcde  says: 

"'  I  knew  a  camel-driver  who  had  bought  a  dromedarj'  be- 
longing to  a  sheriff  of  Mecca  lately  deceased  at  Cairo.  This 
animal  often  made  the  round  trip  between  that  city  and  Suez, 
going  and  returning,  in  twenty-four  hours."  The  distance  from 
Cairo  to  Suez,  as  I  have  already  stated,  is  eighty-four  miles, 
making  one  hundred  and  sixty-eight  miles  travel  in  twenty- four 
hours. 

In  an  appendix  to  the  work  of  General  Carbuccia,  by  Jomard, 
we  find  that  a  detachment  of  the  celebrated  dromedary  regi- 
ment, in  the  French  army  of  Egypt,  marched  from  Cairo  to  El 
Arish,  from  El  Arisli  to  Suez,  from  Suez  to  Cairo,  and  from 
Cairo  to  Pelusiura,  a  distance  in  all  of  not  less  than  six  hundred 
miles,  in  eight  days,  and  he  states  that  the  ordinary  day's  march 
of  the  regiment  was  thirty  French  leagues,  or  about  seventy- 
five  miles,  w^ithout  a  halt. 

Abd-el-Kader  compares  the  pace  of  the  dromedarv  to  the 
2 


18  THE   USES   OF    THE   CAMEL. 

noble  pace  of  the  ostrich ;  and  also  speaks  of  him  as  rivalling 
the  gazelle  in  fleetness.  He  says  that  the  Bedouin  of  the  desert 
gives  his  horse  camel's  milk  to  drink  to  stimulate  him  in  the 
race,  and  adds  that  a  man,  by  drinking  it  exclusively  for  a  con- 
siderable length  of  time,  acquires  such  swiftness  of  foot  as  to 
compete  successfully  with  the  horse  in  running. 

"  When  you  shall  meet  a  mahari,"  or  swift  camel,  says  an 
old  Arab  proverb,  "  and  shall  say  unto  his  rider,  Salem  Aleik, 
ere  he  shall  have  answered  you  Aleik  Salem,  he  will  be  afar  off' 
and  out  of  sight,  for  his  fleetness  is  as  the  wind." 

A  waiter  in  Chambers'  Journal  says  he  has  seen  the  camel 
in  Northern  India  move  off'  at  the  rate  of  eighteen  miles  an 
hour  with  a  piece  of  light  artillery  at  his  heels  ;  and  he  adds,  in 
another  place,  that  his  usual  gait  is  from  twelve  to  thirteen 
miles  an  hour,  but  that  on  being  pushed  he  will  readily  knock 
off' his  eighteen  to  twenty  miles  wuthin  the/ same  period. 

The  author  of  Eothen  speaks  of  ten  to  twelve  miles  an  hour 
as  the  ordinary  jog-trot  of  the  dromedary,  and  says  he  can  keep 
it  up  for  three  days  and  nights,  without  food,  water,  or  repose. 

An  Arab  chief  wdiom  I  met  in  the  grain -market  at  Blidah, 
gravely  informed  me  that  General  Yusuf,  commander-in-chief 
of  th«  native  forces  in  Algeria,  had  repeatedly  driven  a  pair  of 
dromedaries  before  a  wagon  from  Blidah  to  Medeah,  a  distance 
of  twenty-four  miles,  in  half  an  hour.  He  explained  that  the 
general  tied  a  handkerchief  over  his  mouth,  and  wore  goggles, 
and  had  his  ears  stuft'ed  with  cotton-wool,  and  so  got  over  the 
road  very  well.  I  said  nothing  by  way  of  comment,  but  as 
this  dignilied  chieftain  haughtily  declined  a  cigar  which  I 
off"ered  him,  on  the  ground  of  his  not  using  the  weed,  and  I 
afterwards  detected  him  smoking  an  old  stump  which  I  had 
thrown  away,  I  came  to  the  conclusion  that  if  he  did  not  ex- 
actly prevaricate,  he  might,  as  a  man  of  business,  have  added  a 
handsome  per  centage  to  the  truth. 

The  Bedouin  who  came  with  me  from  Africa  in  charge  of  my 
camels,  tells  me  that  he  has  often  travelled  faster  a  camel-back 
than  the  highest  speed  yet  attained  on  the  Northern  New  Jer- 
sey railroad  ;  and  this  I  will  not  gainsay. 

Burden  Capacity. 

The  special  usefulness  of  the  camel  is  found  in  his  capacity  of 
bearing  burdens.     The  Hebrew  word  gamal,  which  we  trans- 


■BURDEN    CAPACITY.  19 

late  camel,  means  literally  hearer.  He  is  sometimes  used  for 
draught,  as  in  Egypt  for  ploughing,  and  British  India  for  drawing 
heavy  ordnance,  and  some  have  conjectured  that,  with  a  suita- 
ble harness,  he  would  make  a  very  serviceable  draught  animal. 
But  nature  seems  to  have  designed  him  especially  for  the  ])aek 
or  saddle.  The  Arabs  say  that  he  is  born  ready  harnessed  fV>r 
his  work,  with  his  pack-saddle  on,  in  the  shape  of  his  hump  of 
fat,  gristle,  leather,  and  thick,  soft  hair.  They  certainly  have 
added  but  little  to  the  natural  arrangement.  The  artificial 
pack-saddle  is  made  by  stuffing  a  bag  eight  or  nine  feet  in 
length  with  straw  or  hay,  sewing  the  ends  together,  and  fitting 
it  round  the  hump.  Over  this  is  placed  a  primitive  frame-work 
of  some  kind  of  hard  wood,  composed  of  two  pieces  about 
eighteen  inches  each  in  length,  disposed  in  the  shape  of  an 
inverted  V  in  front,  and  two  other  similar  pieces  behind  the 
humj) ;  these  are  connected  and  kept  in  place  by  two  cross 
pieces  at  the  bottom,  of  some  three  or  four  feet  in  length.  The 
whole  is  dovetailed  together  and  tied  with  strips  of  leather.  A 
sailor,  with  his  palm  and  needle,  and  skill  in  splicing,  would 
turn  out  the  whole  affair  complete  at  an  hour's  notice.  The 
frame  nestles  into  the  pad,  which  finds  a  secure  footing  in  the 
soft  hair  round  the  hump,  and  only  a  loose  rope,  by  way  of 
girth,  is  required  to  keep  the  whole  in  its  place. 

The  camel  begins  to  carry  burdens  at  four  years  of  age,  and. 
if  properly  treated,  will  maintain  his  usefulness  to  forty.  The 
weight  which  they  can  carry  varies  somewhat,  according  to  the 
species  and  condition  of  the  animal.  The  ordinary  pack  for  a 
full-grown  camel  in  Algeria  is  from  three  hundred  to  four  hun- 
dred kilogrammes,  which,  with  the  weight  of  the  pack -saddle  and 
driver's  luggage,  is  equivalent  to  from  seven  hundred  to  nine 
hundred  pounds.  I  have  often  seen  camels  walkins:  under 
much  heavier  loads,  and  to  this  is  to  be  added  the  weight  of 
the  driver,  who  walks  and  rides  by  turns,  as  the  fit  is  on  him. 
Among  some  camels  imported  into  Texas,  a  few  years  ago,  was 
one  that  would  rise  and  walk  under  a  burden  of  nineteen  hun- 
dred pounds.  Even  this  extraordinary  feat  has  been  beaten, 
as  I  understand,  by  one  of  the  Government  camels,  now  in  Cali- 
fornia, which  has  carried  a  pack  of  two  thousand  pounds  for 
fifty  miles  in  a  single  day.  The  camels  in  the  Canary  Islands 
carry  an  average  pack  of  one  thousand  pounds,  but  their  journevs 


20  THE    USES    OF    THE    CAMEL. 

are  of  course  short.  Those  employed  on  the  Grand  Duke's 
farm,  in  Tuscany,  carry  seventeen  hundred  pounds,  Tuscan 
weight,  equivalent  to  twelve  hundred  pounds  English,  and 
w^ork  regularly  under  this  pack  from  sunrise  to  sunset.  The 
statements  as  to  the  loads  carried  by  camels  in  Egypt,  Euro- 
pean Turkey,  Arabia,  and  other  parts  of  Asia,  vary  from  four 
hundred  to  fifteen  hundred  pounds.  The  usual  load  of  the 
cotton-carriers  in  Persia  is  one  thousand  pounds. 

A  French  nobleman,  the  Duke  de  Luynes,  has  recently  trans- 
ported on  camels,  from  Jaffa  to  the  Dead  Sea,  the  compartments 
of  a  small  iron  steamer,  which  he  has  there  set  afloat,  much  to 
the  horror  of  the  Bedouins,  who  regard  it  as  Satan's  last  mani- 
festation on  those  accursed  waters.  This  is  an  item  which  our 
minincr  friends  will  do  well  to  make  a  note  of. 

The  patience  and  cheerful  perseverance  exhibited  by  the 
camel  under  his  wearisome  packs  is  truly  something  to  admire. 
You  see  him  coming  into  town,  from  a  journey,  it  may  be,  of 
weeks,  his  back  bending  under  his  burden,  yet  striding  im- 
periously through  the  narrow  streets,  with  head  erect,  swaying 
gently  to  and  fro,  and  calm  philosopliic  eye,  and  face  tranquil 
as  the  unworldly  sphinx,  as  if  really  the  heavy  load  on  the 
other  side  of  his  long  neck  were  borne  by  some  other  animal 
than  himself,  with  whose  affliction  he  could  not  possibly  be 
expected  to  sympathize. 

It  is  to  be  considered,  in  perusing  the  statements  of  travellers 
as  to  the  ordinary  camel-load  in  far  Eastern  countries,  that  these 
loads  are  somewhat  modified  by  the  fact  that  the  commodities 
thus  transported  are  usually  of  the  most  precious  and  costly 
character.  The  long  journeys  which  they  make,  and  the  neces- 
sarily high  cost  of  freight,  preclude  tlie  carrying  in  this  way  of 
common  fabrics  and  the  life-sustaining  grains.  These  are  not, 
as  a  rule,  articles  of  international  traffic,  but  are  raised  and 
manufactured  in  the  countries  where  the}^  are  consumed. 
Camels  coming  into  Algiers  from  the  desert  usually  bring 
valuable  dyestuffs,  fine  wool,  camel's  hair,  rich  skins,  tobacco, 
palm-oil,  ostrich-feathers,  ivory,  and  gold-dust.  There's  a  glow 
of  wealth,  an  odor  of  spicery,  and  a  fiashing  of  jewels  about 
these  camel-freights  ever  since  the  time  when  Joseph's  brethren 
lifted  up  their  eyes  as  they  sat  at  meat,  "  and  looked,  and  behold 
a  company  of  Ishmaelites  came  from  Gilead,  with  their  camels 


BURDEN    CAPACITT.  21 

bearing  spicery  and  halm  and  myrrh,  going  to  carry  it  down 
into  Egypt."  In  Isaiah's  prophecy  of  the  blessings  in  store  for 
the  Gentiles,  he 'says:  "The  multitude  of  camels  shall  cover 
thee ;  the  dromedaries  of  Midian  and  Ephah,  all  they  from 
Sheba  shall  come,  they  shall  bring  gold  and  incense,  and  they 
shall  show  forth  the  praises  of  the  Lord."  Again  he  says: 
"  They  will  carry  their  riches  upon  the  shoulders  of  young  asses, 
and  their  treasures  upon  the  bun(-hes  of  camels." 

The  arrival  of  a  caravan,  "  laden  Avith  treasure,"  is  exquisitely 
painted  by  Longfellow,  in  the  "  Kalif  of  Baldacca"  : — 

"Into  the  city  of  Kambalu, 
By  the  road  that  leadeth  to  Ispahan, 
At  the  head  of  his  dusty  caravan, 
Laden  with  treasure  from  realms  afar, 
Baldacca  and  Kclat  and  Kanahar, 
Rode  the  great  Captain  Alau. 

"  The  Khan  from  his  palace  window  gazed  ; 

ITo  saw  in  the  thronging  street  beneath, 

In  the  liglit  of  tlio  setting  sun  that  blazed, 
,    Through  the  clouds  of  dust  by  the  caravan  raised, 

The  flash  of  harness  and  jewelled  sheath, 

And  the  shining  scymitars  of  tlio  guard. 

And  the  wear}-  camels  tliat  bared  their  teeth. 

As  they  passed  and  passed  through  tbe  gates  unbarred 

Into  the  shade  of  the  palace  yard." 


Equally  good  is  that  sumptuous  ballad  of  Don  Fulano,  de- 
scribino;  the  Cid's  entry  into  Valencia,  after  his  victory  at 
Abelfueda,  and  slaying  the  five  Moorish  kings  : — 

"With  dripping  sword  and  horse  all  sweat  he  rode  into  the  town, 
The  black  gore  from  his  plume  and  flag  was  raining  hotly  down ; 
His  mace  was  bent,  his  banner  rent,  his  helmet  beaten  in : 
The  blood-spots  on  his  mail  were  thick  as  spots  on  leopard's  skin. 

"And  after  came  the  hostages,  the  ransomed  and  the  dead — 
The  cloven  Moors  in  wagons  piled,  the  body  or  the  head; 
And  heaps  of  armor,  golden-chained,  gay  plumes  and  broken  flags, 
Piled  up  as  in  the  tanner's  yard,  or  heaps  of  beggars'  rags. 

"  Then  stately  camels,  golden-trapped,  each  silver-white  as  milk, 
Rich  laden  with  the  aloes-wood,  soft  ambergris,  and  silk ; 
Rich  Indian  camphor,  martin-skins,  fi-oin  Khorasan  the  fair; 
Ten  piles  of  silver  ingots,  each  a  Sultan's  triple  share. 


22  THE    USES    OF    THE    CAMEL. 

"  Great  bales  of  orange  safiron-weed,  and  crystal  diamonda  clear; 
Large  Beja  rubies,  fiery  red,  such  stones  the  Emirs  wear. 
Last  came  the  shekels  and  the  bars,  in  leather  bags  sealed  red, 
And  then  black  slaves,  with  jars  of  gold  upon  each  woolly  head." 

SADDLE   AND   FURNITUEE. 

The  riding-gear  of  the  dromedary  is  somewhat  lighter  and 
more  elegant,  but  otherwise  of  similar  construction  to  the  pack- 
saddle.  Some  tribes  have  adopted  the  Moorish  pattern,  which 
is  in  the  form  of  a  bowl  with  stirrups,  two  of  which  they  attach 
to  the  frame-work  and  pad  of  the  Arab  saddle,  one  before  and 
one  behind  the  hump.  The  baggage  of  the  travellers  is  swung 
across  midships.  The  forward  seat  is  occupied  by  the  servant 
or  driver,  who  occasionally  rests  his  feet  upon  the  camel's  neck 
by  way  of  a  change ;  and  the  after,  wdiich  may  be  styled  the 
quarter-deck,  is  the  seat  of  the  master. 

The  family  arrangement  is  altogether  different.  A  pair  of 
stout  wooden  frames  is  slung  over  the  pack-saddle,  somewhat 
resembling  straight-backed  chairs,  in  which,  protected  by  awn- 
ings, ride  the  high-born  dames.  Another  contrivance  is  a  pair  of 
wooden  boxes,  furnished  with  cushions  of  lion  or  leopard  skins, 
about  four  feet  in  length  and  two  in  width,  usually  surmounted 
with  a  stylish  awning,  supported  by  posts  at  the  four  corners, 
and  another  rising  from  the  centre  of  the  saddle.  These  awnings 
have  side-curtains,  or  perhaps  lattices,  through  which  the  Mus- 
sulman women  catch  glimpses  of  the  outer  world.  You  occa- 
sionally meet  a  whole  family,  not  indeed  so  large  as  Solomon's 
or  Brigham  Young's,  cuddled  together  under  one  of  these  moving 
tents.  There  is  also  the  camel-litter,  which  is  nothing  more  or 
less  than  an  Eastern  palanquin,  borne  by  two  camels  harnessed 
before  and  behind  to  its  long  shafts.  This  conveyance,  in-which 
half  a  dozen  may  comfortably  ride,  is  only  used  for  invalids  or 
noble  families. 

CAMEL-KIDING. 

You  do  not  vault  into  the  saddle  of  your  dromedary  after  the 
chivalric  manner  of  horsemen.  The  performance,  if  less  grace- 
ful, is  often  more  laughable,  and  I  cannot  describe  it  better  than 
by  quoting  from  a  lively  writer  in  an  old  number  of  the  American 
Whig  Review,  who  saith  : — 

"  But  the  dragoman  is  sounding  '  boot  and  saddle,'  after  his 


CAMEL-RIDING.  33 

fashion  ;  our  camels  are  laden,  our  dromedaries  are  waitinc^,  not 
indeed  champinjr  the  bit  and  pawinji;  the  ground  like  iierj 
coursers,  but,  with  half-shut  eye,  lazily  '  chewing  the  cud  of 
sweet  and  bitter  fancy.'  Let  us  mount  our  ungainly  steeds  and 
away  to  the  desert. 

"The  camel,  as  everybody  knows,  kneels  to  receive  his  load 
and  his  rider,  and  the  burden  he  can  rise  with  is  said  to  be  the 
measure  of  what  he  is  able  to  carry.  The  Bedouins  often  climb 
to  the  saddle  without  bringing  the  camel  to  his  knees,  or  even 
stopping  him,  by  putting  one  foot  on  the  callus  of  the  l-cnee, 
and  so  clambering  up  by  the  neck  and  shoulder ;  but  I  l-ecom- 
mend  no  such  experiments  to  you.  You  will  find  mounting 
in  the  ordinary  way  ticklish  enough  in  the  beginning,  and  you 
run  considerable  risk  at  first  of  going  off  by  a  very  illogical  a 
priori,  or  a  posteriori  movement,  as  the  animal  rises.  It  is  a 
bad  eminence  to  fall  from,  and  until  you  have  had  considerable 
practice  in  this  sort  of  slack-rope  exercise,  it  is  good  to  hold 
fast  by  the  saddle-pins,  both  fore  and  aft,  while  the  dromedary 
is  unfolding  his  joints  and  working  his  traverse  upwards. 
Further,  see  that  your  attendant  keeps  one  foot  on  your  camel's 
knee  until  you  are  well  posited  and  balanced,  for  he  is  apt  to 
start  up  on  feeling  the  weight  of  his  rider,  and  in  this  case  you 
may  very  likely  go  up  on  one  side  and  come  down  on  the 
other.  "When  all  is  ready,  you  give  the  signal,  your  x\rab  re- 
leases the  camel,  a  sudden  jerk  from  behind  pitches  you  upon 
the  pommel  as  he  raises  his  haunches  (for,  as  w^e  have  told  you 
before,  he  comes  up  stern  foremost),  and  then  a  swell  from  the 
stem  throws  you  aft,  and  so  on  zig-zag  until  he  is  fairly  up, 
when,  after  a  little  more  rolling,  while  he  is  poising  attd  steady- 
ing, backing  and  filling,  and  getting  his  feet  into  marching 
order,  he  steps  ofl:',  and  you  are  at  last  underweigh  on  your 
quest  for  Mesopotamia,  Arabia  Petrsea,  or  the  oasis  of  Jupiter 
Ammon." 

Once  on  the  road,  you  feel  a  sense  of  security  in  your  lofty 
seat  that  is  quite  encouraging.  You  have  no  fear  that  he  will 
stampede  on  hearing  the  shriek  of  a  locomotive,  or  an  organ- 
grinder  entertaining  the  community  with  the  tu4ie  of  "  Sweet 
Home."  If  he  should  happen  to  stumble  and  fall,  which  is  a 
very  unusual  occurrence,  he  comes  down  slow  and  sure,  and 
does  not  immediately  afterwards  threaten  your  brains  or  your 


24  THE    USES    OF   THE   CAMEL. 

bread-basket  by  any  playful  indulgence  in  light  gymnastics 
witb  his  heels.  As  for  shying,  as  a  country  horse  will  do  at  a 
yellow  dog,  or  at  a  lawyer  with  his  green  satchel,  he  rather 
merits,  on  the  contrary,  the  encomium  bestowed  upon  the  horse 
that  you  remember  Mr.  Winkle  was  to  ride  once  upon  a  time. 

"Shy,"  said  the  'ostler,  "  vy,  bless -you,  sir,  he  vouldn't  shy, 
if  he  vas  to  see  a  'ole  vagon-load  o'  monkeys  a-comin'  dotVn  the 
street  vith  their  tails  shaved  oif." 

The  gait  of  the  camel,  from  its  ])eculiar  jerking  motion,  is  at 
first  disagreeable  to  most  persons,  but  you  soon  become  accus- 
tomed-to  it,  after  which  the  exercise,  and  the  refreshing  purity 
of  the  air,  at  so  great  a  height  from  the  ground,  operate  as  an 
exhilarating  tonic.  A  camel-ride  of  days — not  of  hours — is 
always  a  pleasant  experience  to  look  back  upon.  Travellers 
invariably  refer  with  delight,  and  sometimes  with  the  greatest 
enthusiasm,  to  their  journeys  a-camel-back. 

And  this — though  apart  from  a  strictly  economic  view  of  the 
subject — is  an  important  consideration ;  the  pleasure  to  be 
derived,  and  the  vigorous  health  to  be  acquired,  by  a  system  of 
camel-riding.  Genuine  camel-riding  I  mean — not  as  we  stiffen 
up  our  nautical  nerves  by  a  trip  from  the  Elysian  Fields,  round 
the  light-ship,  and  so  back  to  New  York — but  camel-riding, 
day  after  day,  for  a  succession  of  days — a  trip  to  Colorado  or 
Salt  Lake,  or  down  to  Albuquerque,  or  Santa  Fe.  It  would 
do  us  good.  I  think  it  might  become  fashionable.  Americans 
need  a  little  change  of  this  sort.  They  are  too  much  in  the 
sugar  and  cotton  line,  as  Halleck  says.  They  deal  too  exclu- 
sively with  the  inanimate  forces  of  nature  for  their  own  real 
comfort,  tl el ving  in  mines,  going  down  into  wells  after  oil,  put- 
ting steam  into  harness  to  ride  behind  it,  and  otherwise  shame- 
fully abusing  it.  They  need  a  little  more  of  that  life  in  the 
open  air  that  gave  Winthrop  his  bounding  pulse,  and  made 
him  none  the  less  a  patriot  for  that.  Glorious  chap.  What 
an  outrageous  flow  of  spirits  was  on  him  when  he  struck  Bos- 
ton Tilicum  in  the  backwoods  of  Oregon,  and  they  had  coffee 
and  crisped  bacon  for  supper,  and  toasted  doughboys  in  ridicu- 
lous abundance ! 

"Three  thmgs,"  says  Abd-el-Ivader,  "give  vigor  of  body  and 
joy  of  lieart — air,  exercise,  and  the  aspect  of  things  external." 
Hear  Kinglake  on  this  subject:   "  To  taste  the  cold  breath  of 


IMPORTATION    INTO   THE    UNITED    STATES  25 

the  earliest  morn,  and  to  lead  or  follow  yonr  bright  cavalcade 
till  sunset  through  forests  and  mountain  passes,  through  val- 
leys and  desolate  plains,  all  this  becomes  your  Mode  of  Life ^ 
and  you  ride,  eat,  drink,  and  curse  the  mosquitoes,  as  system- 
atically as  your  friends  in  England  eat,  drink,  and  sleep.  If 
you  are  wise,  you  will  nut  look  upon  the  long  period  of  time 
thus  occupied  by  your  journeys  as  the  mere  gulfs  which  divide 
you  from  the  place  to  which  you  are  going,  but  rather  as  the 
most  rare  and  beautiful  portions  of  your  life,  from  which  may 
come  temper  and  strength.  Once  feel  this,  and  you  will  soon 
grow  happy  and  contented  in  your  saddle-home." 

"  It  is  so  sweet  to  find  one's  self  free  from  the  stale  civilization 
of  Europe !  Oh,  my  dear  Ally,  when  first  you  spread  your  car- 
pet in  the  midst  of  these  fresh  scenes,  do  think  for  a  moment  of 
those  of  your  fellow-creatures  that  dwell  in  squares  and  streets, 
and  even  (for  such  is  the  fate  of  many)  in  actual  country 
houses — think  of  the  people  that  are  '  presenting  their  com- 
pliments,' and  '  requesting  the  honor,'  and  '  much  regretting' 
of  those  who  are  pinioned  at  dinner-tables,  or  stuck  up  in  ball- 
rooms, or  cruelly  planted  in  pews ;  aye,  think  of  these,  and  so, 
remembering  how  many  poor  devils  are  living  in  a  state  of 
utter  respectability,  you  will  glory  all  the  more  in  your  own 
delightful  escape." 

Importation  into  the  United  States. 

When  we  reflect  on  the  eminent  usefulness  of  the  camel  in 
the  East,  and  the  vast  numbers  that  there  contribute  in  various 
ways  to  man's  comfort  and  support,  it  appears,  at  first  sight, 
matter  of  surprise  that  he  has  not  hitherto  been  introduced  to 
any  general  extent  upon  this  continent.  All  the  great  nations 
of  the  old  world,  possessing  wide  tracts  of  unoccupied  or  thinly- 
settled  country — the  Chinese,  Tartar,  Persian,  Russian,'  Arab, 
Turk,  and  Egyptian — use  the  camel.  Some  of  these  have  used 
him  from  the  beginning ;  but  none  that  have  once  enjoyed  his 
services  have  manifested  any  subsequent  disposition  to  forego 
them.  On  the  contrary,  in  Russia,  European  Turkey,  and 
Western  Africa,  the  uses  of  this  valuable  animal  are  becoming 
daily  better  appreciated  and  more  widely  extended.  In  Al- 
geria, where  the  French  have  constructed  magnificent  roads  at 
enormous  expense,  the  camel  remains  the  favorite  means  of 


26  THE    USES   OF   THE   CAMEL. 

transportation.  Tlie  Casbali  is  in  ruins,  and  "  the  civilizing 
flag  of  France"  waves  from  its  topmost  remaining  turret ;  only 
the  site  where  stood  the  pirates'  lookout,  whence  the  Algerines 
were  wont  to  signalize  the  appearance  of  a  strange  sail  in  the 
offing  to  their  confederates  in  tlie  port  below,  is  now  pointed 
out  to  the  traveller ;  for  the  pirate's  occupation  is  gone.  The 
caves  and  holes  in  which  burrowed  tlie  swarthy  Moors,  and  the 
dark  alleys  through  which  they  stealthily  crept  in  their  daily  avo- 
cations, have  given  place  to  spacious  blocks  of  houses  and  broad 
boulevards ;  but  the  Arab  still  comes  from  the  mountains  and 
the  desert  on  his  camel  as  of  yore ;  his  stately  caravans,  laden 
with  precious  freight,  still  make  trafl&c  through  all  that  wide 
domain,  and  his  proud  conquerors  have  not  disdained,  in  this 
particular,  to  follow  in  his  footsteps. 

America  had  no  original  domestic  quadruped  but  a  species 
of  elk,  the  llama  tribe,  and,  to  a  certain  extent,  the  bison  or 
buifalo.  The  horse,  the  ass,  the  ox,  the  sheep,  the  goat,  and 
the  hog,  were  brought  over  by  the  early  settlers.  The  indis- 
pensable benefits  we  have  derived  from  their  introduction, 
domestication,  and  large  increase  in  our  country,  are  recognized 
by  all.  Yet  the  camel  is  a  more  useful  animal,  more  hardy,  and 
will  bear  ocean  transportation  better,  than  any  of  these  other 
animals. 

This  latter  point  is  well  established  by  the  testimony  of  Por- 
ter, Wayne,  Heap,  and  many  others ;  and  my  own  experience 
in  the  shipment  of  animals  for  many  years  has  led  me  to  the 
same  conclusion. 

Use  in  Texas  and  Overland. 

That  the  camel  finds  himself  at  home  in  the  local  conditions 
of  our  climate  and  soil,  and  does  not  deteriorate,  but  rather 
improves  in  health  and  vigor  by  a  change  of  domicil,  has  been 
thoroughly  demonstrated  by  the  result  of  the  experiments  made 
by  the  United  States  Government,  in  1855,  '56,  and  '57. 

The  report  of  Captain  Beale,  of  the  United  States  Army,  to 
the  Secretar}^  of  War,  of  an  overland  trip  with  camels,  carrying 
seven  hundred  pounds  each,  from  Texas  to  California,  in  1857, 
is  very  full  and  satisfactory;  but  I  do  not  happen  to  have  it  by 
me  to  quote  from  at  this  time. 

The  following  extracts  are  from  the  official  reports  of  Major 


USE   IN   TEXAS    AND    OVERLAND.  37 

Wayne,  dated  respectively  September  24tli,  and  Kovember  5th, 
1856,  and  February  21st,  1857,  and  will  be  found  sufficiently 
comprehensive  and  conclusive  : — 

"  On  the  28th  of  Angiist  I  sent  down  six  camels,  under  ray 
clerk,  Mr.  Eay,  to  San  Antonio,  for  oats,  in  company  with  three 
wagons  from  this  post  (Camj)  Yerde,  Texas).  The  camels 
could,  as  it  turned  out,  have  gone  down  leisurely  in  two  days, 
but,  governed  in  their  movements  by  the  wagons  (though  they 
were  empty),  they  went  down  in  three,  the  wagons  being  re- 
strained in  their  march  by  the  want  of  water  along  the  route. 
On  Monday,  September  1st,  Captain  McLean,  assistant  quarter- 
master at  San  Antonio,  sent  back  the  camels  to  me  at  12  m., 
with  3,048  pounds  of  oats,  an  average  of  608  pounds  to  each 
animal.  At  6  r.  m.  on  Wednesday,  the  3d  of  September,  the 
camels  were  again  in  this  camp,  and  had  delivered  their  loads, 
having  travelled  leisurely,  and  with  much  less  weight  than  they 
could  easily  have  transported.  On  Tuesday,  September  2d,  the 
wagons  were  returned  by  Captain  McLean  at  12  m.  On  Sat- 
urday, September  6th,  they  arrived  in  camp  at  12-^  p.  m.,  only 
one  wagon  carrying  1,900  pounds,  and  the  others  averaging 
about  1,800  pounds ;  the  loads  that  experience  has  taught  can 
be  safely  transported  in  them  over  this  rough  and  thinly-settled 
country.  From  this  trial,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  six  camels 
transported  over  the  same  ground  and  distance  the  weight  of  two 
six-mule  wagons,  and  gained  on  them  42^  hours  in  time.  Re- 
member, moreover,  that  the  keep  of  a  camel  is  about  the  same 
as  that  of  a  mule  (if  any  difference,  it  being  rather  in  favor  of 
the  camel,  as  it  eats  no  more,  and  ruminates  like  a  cow),  and 
that  there  is  no  heavy  outlay  for  wagons,  harness,  etc.  (the  only 
equipment  being  a  very  rude  pack-saddle,  that  can  be  made  by 
the  cam el-clri vers  themselves),  and  you  will  have  all  the  data 
necessary  for  a  comparison  of  the  two  methods  of  transportation 
just  related.  ****** 

"  On  Saturday  night,  October  4th,  and  Sunday  morning,  it 
rained  in  San  Antonio  heavily,  Avetting  the  roads  deeply,  and 
making  them  muddy  and  boggy.  Wagoning  through  such 
mud  is  lal)or  lost,  for  the  viscidity  of  this  soil  is  such  that  it 
packs  firmly  on  the  wheel,  and  as  with  each  revolution  a  new  layer 
is  taken  up,  the  tire  and  felloes  soon  become  incased  in  a  thick 


28  THE   USES    OF   THE   CAMEL. 

coating  of  pressed  earth,  rendering  traction  slow  and  painful. 
Travelling  in  such  roads,  with  any  thing  like  a  load  in  a  wagon, 
is  out  of  the  question.  This  condition  of  the  road  offered  an 
opportunity  for  another  test, — the  travelling  of  the  camel  in 
muddy  weather, — not  contemplated  by  me  when  the  caravan 
left,  but  which  the  information  and  sagacity  of  Mr.  Ray  at 
once  embraced.  Packing  light  loads  upon  the  camels,  he  took 
advantage  of  a  temporary  cessation  of  rain,  between  12  m.  and 
1  p.  M.,  on  Sunday,  the  5th  of  October,  and  commenced  his 
return  to  camp.  The  rain  continued  with  sliglit  intermissions, 
but  generally  coming  down  in  torrents,  throughout  Sunday 
night  and  the  succeeding  Monday  and  Tuesday.  On  Tuesday 
evening,  October  7th,  the  caravan  reached  camp  at  Y  p.  m., 
and  delivered  3,800  pounds  of  oats,  and  a  few  miscellaneous 
stores  that  it  had  transported,  the  state  of  the  roads  having 
impeded  but  little  its  progress.  Experienced,  disinterested 
persons  said,  at  the  time,  that  loaded  wagons  could  not  have 
travelled  in  such  weather." 

******* 

"  We  have  camels  that  for  short  distances  will  easily  transport 
twelve  and  fifteen  hundred  pounds,  yet  never  but  in  one 
instance  has  there  been  put  upon  them  more  than  about  six 
hundred  pounds.  The  exception  referred  to  was  during  my 
stay  in  Indianola,  and  within  the  first  month  or  six  weeks  after 
landing.  Needing  hay  at  the  camel-yard,  I  directed  one  of  the 
men  to  take  a  camel  to  the  quartermaster's  forage-house  and 
bring  up  four  bales.  Desirous  of  seeing  what  efi'ect  it  would 
produce  upon  the  public  mind,  I  mingled  in  the  crowd  that 
gathered  round  the  camel  as  it  came  into  town.  When  made 
to  kneel  down  to  receive  its  load,  and  two  bales,  weighing  in 
all  613  pounds,  were  packed  on,  I  heard  doubts  expressed 
around  me  as  to  the  animal's  ability  to  rise  under  them ;  when 
two  more  bales  were  put  on,  making  the  gross  weight  of  the 
load  1,256  pounds,  incredulity  as  to  his  ability  to  rise,  much 
less  to  carry  it,  found  vent  in  positive  assertion.  To  convey  to 
you  the  surprise  and  sudden  change  of  sentiment  when  the 
camel,  at  the  signal,  rose  and  walked  off  with  his  four  bales 
of  hay,  would  be  impossible.  It  is  sufficient  to  say  that  I  was 
completely  satisfied.  I  would  have  put  on  two  more  bales — 
about  1,800  pounds — but   four   bales  were  sufficient  for  my 


MILITARY   SERVICES.  29 

purposes,  and  the  animal  had  no  particular  effort  (objection- 
able after  so  long  a  sea  voyage)  to  make  under  them." 

Military  Services. 

Although  traditional!}'  a  peaceful  animal,  lacking  those  fiery 
attributes  which  Job  bestows  upon  the  war-horse,  yet  has  the 
camel  occasionally  rendered  distinguished  service  in  military 
movements.  They  have  been  used  for  centuries  by  the  Per- 
sians in  tlieir  wars  against  the  Turks.  Our  officers  who  visited 
the  Crimea,  in  1855,  found  them  highly  appreciated  by  the 
British,  who  had  previously  used  them  in  India  for  cavalry  ser- 
vice. The  operation  of  the  famous  dromedary  regiment,  organ- 
ized by  the  first  Napoleon  in  Egypt,  was  a  brilliant  success; 
and  the  recent  experiments  of  the  same  nature  in  Algeria,  are 
said  to  have  resulted  in  a  manner  entirely  satisfactory  to  the 
officers  in  charge.  Whether  they  can  be  advantageousl\'  sub- 
stituted for,  or  used  in  connection  with,  the  horse  in  the  regular 
military  operations  of  our  army,  is  an  open  question  ;  but  there 
is  no  doubt  that,  as  an  armed  escort,  they  will  render  good  ser- 
vice in  protecting  our  overland  trains  from  Indian  depreda- 
tions. 

"There  are  few  more  imposing  spectacles,-'  says  Marsh, 
"  than  a  body  of  ^nned  men,  advancing  under  the  quick  pace 
of  the  trained  dromedary  ;  and  this  sight,  with  the  ability  of  the 
animal  to  climb  ascents  impracticable  to  horses,  and  thus  to 
transport  mountain  howitzers,  light  artillery,  stores,  and  other 
military  materiel  into  the  heart  of  the  mountains,  would  strike 
with  a  salutary  terror  the  Camanches,  Lipaus,  and  other  savage 
tribes  upon  our  borders."  And  he  thus  sums  up  his  qualifica- 
tions for  martial  rank,  which  it  will  be  seen  are  equally  valua- 
ble to  him  as  a  beast  of  burden. 

"  Among  the  advantages  of  the  camel  for  military  purposes," 
he  says,  ''  may  be  mentioned  the  economy  of  his  original  cost 
as  compared  with  the  horse  or  mule,  when  once  introduced  and 
fairly  domesticated — the  simi)licity  and  cheapness  of  his  saddle 
and  other  furniture,' which  every  soldier  can  manufacture  for 
himself;  the  exemption  from  the  trouble  and  expense  of  pro- 
viding for  his  sustenance,  and  from  dressing,  sheltering,  or 
shoeino;  hiui ;  his  wreat  docilitv,  his  general  freedom  from  dis- 
ease,  his  longevity,  the  magnitude  of  his  burden,  and  the  great 


30  THE    USES    OF   THE   CAMEL. 

celerity  of  his  movements  ;  his  extraordinary  fearlessness  ;  the 
safety  of  his  rider,  whether  from  falls  or  the  viciousness  of  the 
animal ;  the  economical  value  of  his  flesh,  and  the  applicability 
of  his  hair  and  'skin  to  many  purposes  of  military  use  or  con- 
venience ;  the 'resources  which  in  extreme  cases  the  milk  might 
furnish,  and,  Anally,  his  great  powers  of  abstinence  from  both 
food  and  drink." 

Adaptability  to  our  Far  West. 

It  would  be  idle  now  to  speculate  as  to  what  would  have 
been  the  effect  on  our  civilization,  if  Columbus,  when  lie  sailed 
from  Cadiz  for  Santo  Domingo,  on  the  25th  of  September,  1493, 
on  his  second  voyage  of  exploration,  taking  with  him  horses, 
cattle,  and  other  domestic  animals  wherewith  to  stock  the 
New  World,  had  taken  some  camels  also.  With  the  increased 
facilities  they  would  have  afforded  us  for  a  larger  development, 
might  we  not  have  become  more  of  a  pastoral  people — less 
seltish  and  greedy  of  gain,  taking  more  liberal  and  comprehen- 
sive views  of  human  affairs  ?  Might  not  our  country  have  been 
more  fully  explored*,  and  to  an  extent  settled,  and  farther  ad- 
vanced towards  its  sublime  destiny  ?  And  what  would  have 
been  the  effect  on  the  Indian  question  ?  Should  we  have  used 
the  camel  exclusively  to  hunt  that  stricken  antl  decaying  people 
more  swiftly  to  their  death  ;  or  would  he  have  been,  on  the  other 
hand,  a  civilizing  element  in  their  midst,  winning  them  by  his 
morale  to  more  useful  and  tranquillizing  pursuits,  a  means  of 
utilizing  rather  than  exterminating  them  I 

All  the  local  conditions  and  influences  of  our  Western  coun- 
try indicate  most  unmistakably  the  camel  as  its  appropriate 
denizen.  Take  a  map  of  the  world  on  the  Mercator  projection, 
and  you  will  see  that  the  parallels  on  which  he  is  used  to  the 
greatest  extent,  and  to  the  best  advantage  in  the  Old  World, 
are  precisely  those  on  which  we  propose  to  employ  him  in  the 
New.  The  great  geological,  climatic,  and  topographical  features . 
of  the  eastern  and  western  parallels  are  sufficiently  similar. 
Both  on  the  Great  Plains  which  form  the  eastern  slope  of  the 
Eocky  Mountains,  embracing  nearly  the  entire  valley  of  the. 
Rio  Grande,  and  extending  northward  beyond  the  northern 
boundary  of  the  United  States,  and  in  the  Great  Basin  of  the 
interior,  between  the  Eockys  and  the  Sierra  Nevada,  there  are 


ADAPTABILITY   TO   OUK   FAR   WEST.  31 

large  tracts  of  country  closely  resembling  the  deserts  of  Africa 
and  Arabia.  None  of  our  mountain  passes  are  more  rugged  or 
steeper,  or  more  subjected  to  the  obstacles  of  snow  and  ice, 
than  those  of  China,  Tartary,  or  northern  Africa.  Some  have 
suggested  that  the  greater  Inunidity  of  portions  of  our  con- 
tinent, giving  more  of  an  alluvial  character  to  the  soil,  would 
be  found  objectionable.  Mud  is  always  an  impediment  to 
travel,  but  I  think  the  extracts  which  I  liave  read  from  Major 
Wayne's  lieports  show  that  the  camel  is  by  no  means  thrown 
hors  de  combat  from  this  cause  ;  at  all  events,  we  may  safely 
affirm  that  even  under  these  conditions,  least  favorable  to  his 
character  and  capacity — ^wliich  are,  by  the  way,  the  exception 
and  not  the  rule — the  camel  will  be  found  to  possess  many  ad- 
vantages over  tlie  loaded  team  as  a  means  of  tranb})ortation. 

That  this  useful  and  valuable  animal  has  not  hitherto  been 
introduced  into  our  continent,  may  be  attributed  partly  to  the 
fact  that  our  population  has  been  made  up  almost  exclusively 
from  peoples  not  familiar  with  the  uses  of  the  camel — the  over- 
flow, as  it  were,  of  the  denser  countries  of  Western  and  Central 
Europe.  No  great  territorial  nation  has  sent  us  any  contribu- 
tion to  speak  of;  and,  besides,  our  previous  requirements  may 
not  seem  to  have  imperatively  demanded  the  use  of  any  other 
means  of  conveyance  than  those  which  we  found  ready  pro- 
vided to  our  hands.  But  with  the  gold  discoveries  in  California, 
and  the  subsequent  discoveries  of  the  precious  metals  in  our  in- 
land Territories,  the  aspect  of  the  case  is  changed  :  other  and 
better  facilities  are  called  for,  and  must  be  had.  In  this  view 
of  the  question,  I  think  I  hazard  little  in  repeating  a  prediction 
which  I  made  in  a  work  published  in  Boston  in  1851,  that '"  the 
camel  will  yet  be  domesticated  and  bred  in  our  Western  States 
and  Territories  as  the  horse,  the  mule,  and  the  ox  now  are,  and 
will  doubtless  do  more  towards  extending  the  outskirts  of  our 
civilization  than  all  other  appliances  to  boot." 

There,  in  the  golden  wake  of  sunset,  lies  the  peerless  West, 
offering  us  with  lavish  hand  her  priceless  treasures.  There  she 
stands  like  a  queen,  flushed  and  proud,  arrayed  in  garments  of 
silver  with  ornaments  of  gold,  waiting  to  be  crowned  with  the 
glory  of  human  population,  like  Memnon's  statue  in  the  wilder- 
ness, waiting  for  the  dawn  of  human  industry  to  become  musical 
with  its  hum,     Macaulay,  at  the  close  of  his  essay  on  "  Mitford's 


32  THE   USES   OF   THE   CAMEL. 

Greece,"  with  a  touching  sadness  that  partakes  of  the  sublime, 
suggests  the  possibility  of  a  coming  period,  "  when  civilization 
and  knowledge  shall  have  fixed  their  abode  in  some  distant  con- 
tinent, and  the  sceptre  shall  have  passed  away  from  England  ; 
when,  perhaps,  travellers  from  distant  regions  shall  in  vain 
labor  to  decipher,  on  some  mouldering  pedestal,  the  name  of 
her  proudest  chief;  shall  hear  savage  hymns  chanted  to  some 
misshapen  idol  over  the  ruined  dome  of  her  proudest  temple, 
and  shall  see  a  single  naked  fisherman  wash  his  nets  in  the 
river  of  ten  thousand  masts." 

This  is  the  poetical  foreshadowing  of  a  fact  already  in  pro- 
cess of  being  accomplished.  A  great  continental  empire  is 
growing  up  here,  with  the  Rocky  Mountains  for  its  massive 
and  towering  centre.  Let  us  follow  up  the  fancy  of  Macaulay 
and  divest  it  of  its  gloom.  Let  us  imagine  some  future  traveller, 
standing  upon  our  topmost  central  peak,  gazing  on  either  hand 
upon  the  wide  expanse  of  mountain,  valley,  and  broad  sweep- 
ing plain,  peopled  with  a  healthy,  hardy  race,  living  near  their 
mother  earth,  and  drawing  vigorous  sustenance  from  her  ample 
bosom  ;  inheritors  of  earth's  last,  best  civilization,  jet  possessing 
the  simple  tastes  and  primitive  habits  of  the  patriarchs ;  with 
streams  of  travel  flowing  in  all  directions,  the  iron  horse  rush- 
ing along  the  narrow  ribbon  of  his  appointed  course,  the  plains 
whitened  with  tented  wagons,  and,  coming  from  farther  dis- 
tances along  their  broader  roads,  caravans  of  camels — and^ie 
shall  behold  a  mighty  and  Heaven-favored  land,  fair  to  look 
upon,  chastened  and  purified,  within  its  wide  realm  a  compe- 
tence and  a  home  for  the  migratory  hosts  from  every  clime, 
and  throughout  all  its  radiant  borders  Fkeedom  forevermore. 


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